TIPS ON WRITING SALES LETTERS
Sales letters have many purposes: to sell a specific product, to sell the agency image, to keep customers informed of new coverage options, to complement service functions. But when it comes down to it they all serve one end-to sell the product and then keep it sold. Here are some tips on writing sales letters.
OPENINGS CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR LETTERS
If your sales letters start by stressing benefits, there's a good chance you'll be successful in getting your message across. Here are some effective opening statements: examples of important concepts with which to begin your future letters.
- QUOTE-INDIRECT. According to a feature in Business Week, a man in your income bracket can expect to have approximately $175,000 in his estate by age 65.
- CASE HISTORY. The X Company, about your size, recently doubled sales in just six months.
- SHOCK. Every week, businesses just like yours waste up to $X in wasted copying costs.
- DO YOU REMEMBER? Do you remember when a gallon of gasoline cost 25 cents? (This type of thing can probably also go into the 'shock' category.)
- QUESTION. Would you bet $5 a day that your current copier is better than ours? You might just be making that bet-every day.
- ENVY. Mary lost 23 pounds in just four weeks. You can too.
- EMOTIONAL. While you read this, needy children . . .
DO YOUR SALES LETTERS NEED A FACE LIFT?
1. More effective selling letters: Use direct-mail experience to improve business letters. Specific suggestions:
- Use an opening that promises the reader a benefit (a free booklet, time or money savings, and so on).
- Ask a question that gets the reader to agree with the points in your letter mentally.
- Get news into the message.
- Keep the opening paragraph short. Alternate long and short paragraphs.
- Address the reader as an individual.
- Get to the point quickly.
- Don't annoy the reader by saying obvious things about his or her own business.
- To carry a reader through the entire letter, use conjunctions liberally. They work particularly well at the opening of sentences and paragraphs.
- Keep the tone personal, low-pressured, friendly, sincere, informal.
- After writing the first paragraph, ask yourself: Is that what I'd say after the handshake if I were calling in person?
2. NEW! the 'Five Letter Word Formula' for easy reading. Short words. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. All help to make letters easy to read. And here's a new easy-to-use formula to check the readability of your letters.
It's called the 'Five Letter Word Formula' and was developed by Maxwell Ross from a book called The Art of Plain Talk, by Rudolf Flesch. Here's what you do:
- Count the number of words in your letter, omitting all proper names, the salutation, and the close.
- Determine how many words with five letters or less you've used.
- Divide this total by the number of words in your letter.
Thus you have your score. If you're near 75%, this is about right. If you fall below 70%, watch out! Your writing is more difficult to read than it should be.
Why not print out some letters today and check their readability? It's time well spent.
An Easy Way To Shorten Sentences
Leave out the word 'that' whenever you can. While you're checking those copies for readability, check for unneeded 'that's' and 'which's.' Example:
We are sure that you will like our new Zollywog. Simplified: We are sure you will like our new Zollywog.
Another: Please endorse the check which you will receive. Simplified: Please endorse the check you will receive.
Deleting a 'that' here and a 'which' there will streamline your writing. Yet the meaning will still be clear. But don't overdo this. Any writing technique, if overdone, brings attention to itself-and you don't want that!
Headline Power. Two out of three readers notice an ad, but only two out of five start to read it. Once they start, about half will read at least half of the ad. To grab the most readers, write a headline that quickly and clearly communicates the subject, while making a convincing promise to the reader. A recent study found that the best headlines are no longer than 12 words, mention a product feature or benefit, and include the product name.
WRITING THE 'GRABBER'
Whether your sales letters are the first contact you have with your customer or prospect or the follow-up to a personal interview, you have to create a strong impression in your reader's mind. Some guidelines for writing effective, 'grabbing' letters can be found in this article from Small Business Report.
SALES LETTER: MAKE IT WORK
Selling by letter is the most demanding test of communication skills. Words alone must do the job. Write in strong, colorful language that gets ideas across in a way your reader will understand.
Don't try to write a sales letter unless you have an idea to sell. Determine your audience: men, women, corporate presidents, salespeople, buyers. People in different positions and even different parts of the country often require different approaches. Being careful on this point can pay big dividends.
A good sales letter has powerful sales arguments. Good writing, as such, has little to do with it. Grammar, style, and vocabulary take a back seat. Forget what your English teacher told you about redundancies. Don't be afraid to say, 'This gift is yours absolutely free without any obligation on your part whatsoever.' Aren't all gifts free? And doesn't 'absolutely free' mean 'without obligation'? But free gifts get more attention than mere gifts. Be redundant. Use precise, exact, and specific all in the same sentence. Use new, fresh, and revolutionary in another. Such sentences work. They sell!
A writer who is not a sales writer might say that your letter is too repetitious, that you could easily cut it in half, that it should be a short, concise one-pager that tells its story quickly and directly. But a sales letter must sell, must lead the reader to take action. It must emphasize over and over and over again. It must stress the desired action repeatedly. Start thinking in terms of composition, and you're a dead duck.
Your sales story has to be true. But more than that, it must sound true. Sometimes the plain facts can sound like a hopeless exaggeration. To gain credibility, use your facts and figures to build your case point by point. Then use testimonials that come across truthfully.
The first step is to gather facts and come up with ideas. A good sales letter creates interest, desire, and reasons for buying or taking other action. Even then, the world's most compelling letter cannot endow a product with values it doesn't have. But if performance can live up to promise, a good sales letter will get you customers.
The second step is to put the ideas on paper, first as notes and outlines, then as a rough draft. The first sentence of a sales letter must be a grabber. If you don't immediately grab the reader's interest and make him or her want to read further, all your efforts will be wasted as the letter gets tossed into the waste basket. Write and rewrite your opening sentence until you are sure it makes a compelling entrance for your presentation.
Build your letter around the needs, fears, desires, happiness, or profitability of your readers. Slant the language and thought toward him or her. The reader is interested in his or her own problems, opportunities, and success, not in yours or your company's. The only reason a customer buys is for self-benefit. Stress what action you want the reader to take by explaining it, and then emphasizing it in several places in the letter.
The third step is to be the critical editor and delete and rewrite until it says what you want it to say. Writers say, 'Cut it until it bleeds.' Keep rewriting, cutting out the flab until the substance of the thought is revealed. Lean writing moves people to action.
When your sales letter is completed, evaluate it. Does the opening sentence arouse interest? Do subsequent paragraphs create desire? Are there convincing reasons for buying or taking action? Does each paragraph lead to the next and the next, giving your letter momentum? Is it written in the language of your average prospect? Does it give the prospect enough information to make a decision? Have you used testimonials? Do you ask for definite action and then make it easy for the prospect to act? Have you enclosed a folder, circular, or other sales literature with the letter?
As A Follow-Up
Sales letters should also be used to follow up sales calls. Even an impressive sales presentation will fade from your prospect's memory. Keep the door open with a series of letters that stress what was missed or slighted during the sales call. Develop a series of letters to fit the type of product each sale represents. Follow-ups work best spaced one to two weeks apart.
Personalized letters are expensive. So make only the first letter in a series personal. Then switch to form letters. Include a reply card with each letter so the prospect can request literature, prices, or a sales call. Each letter should emphasize a different feature relating to such things as cost benefits, quality, service, delivery, workmanship, design, and so on. Enclose something the prospect can use-a catalogue, case history, feature story, testimonial, price list, or annual report.
Also, remember people get promoted, transferred, and fired. One of your follow-up letters should be the 'list-cleaning' letter that updates your mailing list. To find out if your letters are still reaching the right person, enclose a reply card asking, 'Are we addressing you properly? If not, please make the change in Name, Title, Department, Address in the space provided below.' Not only will this direct your sales letter to the key people, it can also help identify new prospects. If one person is promoted, you can work to convince both that person and his or her replacement in your next sales letter.
ONE THING AT A TIME
The more ideas you put in a single letter, the less you can emphasize any one of them.
This applies to all kinds of letters. The proof, however, is most obvious in the field of selling. In all the years we've been selling by mail, we have rarely succeeded in selling two different items in the same letter. Every time we introduce a second item, even briefly, total sales or leads produced by the letter declines.
Sales of the second item or service, or sales response cards, rarely make up for the loss of sales caused by distracting attention from the first item. If you want to make an impression on your readers, sell one product at a time.
Having Trouble Getting Started?
Below are eleven suggestions for the opening paragraph of a letter. One of them is bound to fit almost any situation:
1. Use a tie-in with the letter you are answering: The problem raised in your letter of July 3 is not an easy one to answer.
Ms. Smith, our president, has asked me to reply to your letter concerning late deliveries.
2. Plunge directly into the subject of your letter-especially if it is something that can be easily understood without a lengthy introduction. In your order, which was shipped today, two items were omitted.
Here are the specifications on which we are soliciting bids.
3. Use the you point of view. Your courtesy in sending us advance notice is appreciated.
You will be pleased to know . . .
4. Ask a question. It's a good way to force attention. Have you reviewed your requirements for the coming season?
When do you expect to ship our order No. 6141?
5. Make a statement of fact pertinent to the subject at hand. Twenty of our home office salespeople are driving leased automobiles at considerable savings.
6. Show your appreciation! Thank you for your interest in our new models.
You were very thoughtful to forward the samples.
7. Open with a name that means something to your reader. Your neighbor, Mr. Jones, suggested I write you.
8. Open with a story or saying that has a special meaning in this case. My father, a Vermont farm boy, had a favorite expression: 'A hit bird flutters.' Your recent letter caused such a flutter that I'm sure your criticism was justified.
9. Make an offer or give a gift. Please accept with our compliments the enclosed tickets to the Home Furnishing Show.
10. When appropriate, a bit of friendly sentiment is an excellent opening. It creates a friendly atmosphere for the entire letter. It's a pleasure to have an excuse for writing you. I still chuckle every time I recall the delightful evening we spent together at the convention.
11. Make a challenge!
We can cut your utility costs by 10% -- if not, out service costs you nothing.
There are other ways to start a letter, of course, but we hope this list will occasionally help you over the hump. Most important, don't be afraid to use an opening that gets immediately to the heart of the subject. Don't be afraid to write a short letter. As long as it is polite and friendly-not insultingly abrupt-a short letter is usually more forceful, more effective than a long one, especially if the longer one contains a lot of needless introductory remarks.
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Nonsexist language is a must in your sales letters and promotions. The following excerpts from 'How to Avoid Sexism When Writing Copy' by Brian Christian Turley in Direct Marketing Magazine will give you some clues, and do's and don'ts, to avoid offending one-half of your potential prospects.
P.S. Be careful about the salutations of your sales letters, too. In the absence of further information, 'Ms.' is better than guessing about the marital status of 'Mary Smith.' If a woman prefers to be called 'Miss' or 'Mrs.,' she will generally indicate that on her correspondence.
HOW TO AVOID SEXISM WHEN WRITING COPY
Women and men should always be treated equally in copy, and in illustrative material as well. At no time should a woman be described strictly in terms of her appearance. She should never be stereotyped in terms of life-style or job function or patronized in terms of femininity.
Women and men should be treated with the same degree of respect, vis-a-vis job, physical attributes, and ability-mental, physical, or otherwise. At no time should women be demeaned through use of innuendo or cliches such as flighty, curvy, catty, fragile, gossipy, spinsterish, ladylike.
Here are some common wrongs and rights:
Wrong:
Chairman
Salesman
Fireman
Foreman
Mailman
Businessman
Bakeryman
Statesman
Congressman
Right:
Presiding Officer, the Chair, Leader, Moderator
Sales Representative
Fire Fighter
Supervisor, Group Leader
Carrier, Delivery Person
Business Executive
Baker, Pastry Chef
Leader, Opinion Maker
Representative, Member of Congress
Just eliminating 'man' whenever it's a suffix is most often the simplest thing to do when searching for the proper word. What's more difficult is to make judgements about situations and how people are portrayed in typical instances. Traditionally, men are portrayed as strong, decisive, risk-taking and athletic, and women as sensitive, demure, prone to tears, shy, delicate, and non-assertive. The trick comes in making the sexes equal no matter what their traditional roles or stereotypes.
Unfortunately, English is without a pronoun that straddles the sexes-one which can be used as a 'neuter,' if you will, in he/she situations. The result is that we generally opt to use the masculine. The only way around the problem, most often, is to use 'his and her,' making an attempt to vary the masculine and feminine pronouns to 'her and his' for a change of pace and fairness.
Unquestionably, this technique sometimes contributes to contrived, forced, and self-conscious writing. But there aren't too many other options. With thought, however, the pronoun need not appear at all:
- The typical sailmaker likes his thread heavy and waxed.
- The typical sailmaker likes heavy, waxed thread.
The simplest thing to do is just reconstruct the sentence entirely, using the plural, the closest we have in the language to a generic, all-purpose pronoun:
Sailmakers like their thread heavy and waxed.
Alternatively, the 'his or her' can be replaced with 'one':
The typical sailmaker is one who prefers heavy, waxed thread.
The dictum is clear enough. Women and men should be cast as people, humans- not as beings in opposition. They should share characteristics and abilities, swap roles and missions, portrayals and personifications. Vive la difference! But please, don't make a big deal out of it in a letter. In essence, writers should avoid treating men and women as members of the opposite sex.